For those who are home, and for those who are on the way. For those who support the historic and just return of the land of Israel to its people, forever loyal to their inheritance, and its restoration.

Thursday, January 31, 2019

...The ban on Jews praying on the Temple Mount is milk spilled by Moshe Dayan after the Six-Day War – it's a crime against God, but it's unlikely to be rectified now. The sop of comfort that remains to Jews on the Temple Mount – free visits at their people's holiest site – is the bare minimum. Halevy and Erdan realized that the time was ripe and that they had to push for the historic change.

The quiet revolution on the Temple Mount, one of the most volatile places in the Middle East, has been taking place far from the spotlights for a few years. It was brought about gradually, with wisdom and determination, and was good for the Jews. Within a few years, the number of Jewish visitors increased sevenfold, from about 5,000 per year to over 35,000 per year in 2018. That is very few compared to the millions of Muslims and hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit the Jewish people's holiest site each year, but it's a modest beginning to fixing the historic and religious wrong that kept Jews off the Mount. Previous governments, and especially Jerusalem police commanders, took care to perpetuate that wrong for almost 50 years.

The architect of the change in the police's attitude toward Jews visiting the Temple Mount was Jerusalem District Police Chief Yoram Halevy. The one who gave him political backing was Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan. Many of their predecessors saw Jews visiting the holy site as a nuisance and a danger, and curtailed those visits as much as possible. They stuck to their side of the status quo, which prevented Jews from praying on the Mount, and ignored the other part of it – that Jews were allowed to visit.

History called in Halevy and Erdan, both of whom received religious Zionist educations in Jerusalem, and had the courage to challenge the rigid thinking that saw any Jewish presence on the Temple Mount as a danger. Their predecessors saw any expansion of the rabbinical ruling that allow Jews to visit the Mount as a threat; Erdan and Halevy saw it as an opportunity. When Halevy said over a year ago that "the number of visitors to the Temple Mount is doubling," and even called on Jews to "come to the Temple Mount," he expressed a Zionist, sovereign worldview of a place where Zionism and Israeli sovereignty have been backtracking since the 1967 Six-Day War.

...Risk Israeli lives when not legally required: Gantz has boasted that he risked the lives of Golani troops when he took precautions for the benefit of Palestinians which in his own judgment were not required by the law. He did not touch on this crucial issue in his remarks.

Some observations regarding former COS Gantz's speech last night and his candidacy in general:

1. Retreat of civilians: Gantz indicated that in the absence of a deal with the Palestinians that the Israeli civilian presence in Judea and Samaria be limited to the vaguely defined "settlement blocs". There would possibly be troops deployed in the Jordan Valley (he termed it Israel's "security border") but the communities in the Jordan Valley have never been included in anyone's delineation of the "settlement blocs".

2. No contours to deal with Palestinians: Gantz's requirements were all in the context of what Israeli would do unilaterally if there isn't a "deal". Its not clear what "red lines"Gantz has for a deal..

3. No concern over Gaza arms build up: Gantz opposes the Qatari cash transfers that were already discontinued before he spoke but said nothing about the ongoing weapons build up in the Gaza Strip.

4. Muzzle criticism of senior officials and institutions? : "there shall not be wild attacks against the [IDF} Chief of Staff, the head of the police, and the attorney general...incitement against the institutions of the courts, culture and media."

...All these revelations about the Hebron monitors were reported in the Israeli media. The info was out there. But the wire services cited none of this.

Pesach Benson..
Honest Reporting..
30 January '19..

Israel announced that it will not renew the mandate for a group of international peace monitors stationed in Hebron.

The Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) has been stationed in Hebron for more than 20 years. Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy and Turkey have contributed civilians to act as monitors on the ground in Hebron since the organization’s establishment in established in 1994 following the Tomb of the Patriarchs massacre, during which Baruch Goldstein killed 29 Palestinians at the holy site. Because the Hebron monitors’ mission was originally meant to be “temporary,” its mandate had to be renewed twice a year by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The announcement to send the Hebron monitors packing was picked up the three main international wire services: Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP) — none of whom shed any light on the questions of why.

So why are the Hebron monitors no longer welcome? Why is this happening now?

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Does Amnesty want the tour guides to describe the extortionists, robbers, and filthy ruffians who were the historical Palestinian Arab residents of the area? OK, let's tell the City of David to emphasize this history. This report is all the proof you need - as if you needed more proof - that Amnesty is not interested in human rights of Arabs so much as they want to strip Jews of their own human rights to even visit the lands of their ancestors, let alone live there.

Elder of Ziyon..
30 January '19..

Today, Amnesty International released another incredibly biased report, about how Israeli tourism to Judea and Samaria is somehow a war crime..

The hate that Amnesty has for Jews who choose to live where their forefathers lived, and for the Jewish history that nearly all occurred there, is palpable.

This Amnesty report sheds no new light. NGOs keep trying to find new ways to demonize the Jews of Judea and Samaria and the flavor of the year is tourism.

Most of the report doesn't even mention tourism but is a rehashed litany of old, ridiculous accusations, such as Israel is violating "the right to adequate housing" - in an area where anyone can drive around and see opulent mansions belonging to Arabs.

Examples of the hate in this report:

Within East Jerusalem, the government is developing ambitious plans to build tourism infrastructure in Palestinian parts of the city.

Which were Jewish parts of the city 3000 years anyone ever heard of Palestinian Arabs.

In 2017, tourist arrivals grew by 25% to a record 3.6 million visitors, bringing in US$5.8 billion. This growth has brought financial benefits both to Israel and to businesses operating in occupied territory. This is because most foreign visitors also enter the OPT. The top three most visited places by foreign tourists in 2017 were all in Jerusalem’s Old City, which Israel annexed in 1967 along with the rest of East Jerusalem.

The footnote says that these three places are the Western Wall, the Jewish Quarter and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Yes, two of them are Jewish and one Christian. Apparently visiting these places is a terrible crime because it supports Israel's "occupation" of the areas - even in Jerusalem.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

...Hamas is still pursuing its self-declared goal of exterminating each and every Jew "hiding behind every rock and tree;" but in Gaza the only thing to be found behind the rocks and trees are unemployment, illness, drugs and despair.

An analysis of the Palestinian arena points to a terminal split and dead end. The Palestinian Authority has chosen now, of all times, to reject American aid money, while Hamas openly scoffed at Qatar's humanitarian aid yet immediately accepted it through the back door.

Throughout history, the PLO's terrorist tentacles – and the Palestinian "sumud" (steadfastness) at its core – have been funded by Arab countries and the West, in a lethal brew of fear-mongering and anti-Semitism. Many of the countries were essentially paying "protection money," either willingly or through blackmail, to help resolve the "Palestinian problem" and out of concern that the PLO would do them harm. Other countries used the organization as an "attack dog," a proxy to pursue their interests.

At the same time, Palestinian terror was used against us as a "bonus" to leverage the PLO's main existence as a corrupt, parasitic and profitable economic entity (similar to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency). The reality, however, has changed. Now the Western coalition is fighting alongside the Arabs against Islamic terror. But everyone remembers that the Palestinian (and their Muslim Brotherhood) architects of terror are in essence the "mentors" for these radical Islamist terrorist groups currently perceived as a global disease.

In the meantime, the Palestinian issue has been marginalized and is threatening to "burn the house down," as the world is focused on the threat posed by Iran and its proxies in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. As Israel's relations with the Arabs gradually improves, the Palestinians are realizing – helped by American aid cuts to UNRWA's budget – the fictitious narrative of Palestinian refugeehood is dissipating.

While Israel is viewed as a vital component in the regional alliance against terror, the Palestinian Authority is still confined in a straitjacket, drumming on about "refugees" returning to Israel in a flood and that Jerusalem – the reason for Zionism – will become their capital through international pressure.

How, then, can the PA president – who orchestrates this terror, collects the protection money and whose existence depends on donor states – dare to reject American aid money earmarked for the security apparatuses assisted by Israel to keep him in power?

The millionaire Palestinian Authority president's brazen rejection of American money stems from Hamas' accusations that he is an Israeli collaborator (which is true), and from the American demand that the PA expose itself to lawsuits by victims of terror. No crime syndicate would concede to having its extortion money return to its victims. PA President Mahmoud Abbas is struggling to internalize that without this collaboration with Israel, Hamas would devour his government and the assets he has amassed through corruption, very similar to the situation in Gaza.

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

...His old tricks didn't seem to be making the same impression anymore. It's understandable. The immigrants in Europe had brought a new type of murderous terrorism with them – car rammings, chemical materials, indiscriminate shootings and other such ideas – such that stone-throwing and sniping at passing cars, staples of the conflict, simply weren't exciting to the younger generation anymore.

It was just another morning; there had been thousands like it and there would be thousands more. The birds chirped, the trains ran late and on the radio, they were discussing some investigation into the prime minister. And yet, despite the normal appearances, something was different.

I didn't understand it at the time, but now I know: It was the day the conflict died. There were no signs to prepare us. Quite the opposite; those who saw him say everything seemed fine. Yes, he growled his customary catchphrases – "diplomatic isolation," a "political tsunami," and "one-state solution" – at anyone who inquired about his wellbeing. And as usual, he had been busy – skipping between The Hague, the United Nations in New York, Ramallah and Haaretz newspaper's main office on Schocken Street in Tel Aviv. Even his campaign billboards were the same, telling us about "divorce" from the Palestinians and "democracy." Just like the good old days.

But for the people who knew him well, something felt off. Although he still made the occasional headline in The Guardian, and even though the New York Times still reserved him a place of honor behind its paywall, his media appearances were no longer what they used to be.

His old tricks didn't seem to be making the same impression anymore. It's understandable. The immigrants in Europe had brought a new type of murderous terrorism with them – car rammings, chemical materials, indiscriminate shootings and other such ideas – such that stone-throwing and sniping at passing cars, staples of the conflict, simply weren't exciting to the younger generation anymore.

The little that he had left – the prized Gaza border protests – was appropriated by the Iranians and Turks. It turns out that other players are now better at this game than him.

In the days that have passed since the corpse was found, further details have emerged. The autopsy performed across the pages of Haaretz revealed no foul play; he hadn't fallen ill and there were no signs of suicide. And although his body hadn't been as strong as it used to be, he still looked young for his age; his vital organs functioned properly while the aid money and incitement ran naturally through his veins.

...JVP begins its history lesson with the Ottomans. Jews paid a poll tax so that the Ottoman empire might protect them, and violence against them was “unusual.” Two falsehoods in one sentence. The dhimmi system was a Mafia-style protection racket built on extortion and humiliation: Jews were granted few rights. Pre-1948 massacres against the Jews were not unusual.

Lyn Julius..
JNS.org..
28 January '19..

It has been said that the group Jewish Voice for Peace is neither representative of Jews, nor is it pro-peace. Its voice on the far-left edge of the U.S. Jewish community has been rather shrill since the organization was founded in 1996.

Now, however, with the publication of its Jews of the Middle East worksheet and its document “Our approach to Middle East Peace,” JVP is employing a new tactic: to co-opt Mizrahi Jews into its anti-Zionist struggle.

More than 30 Sephardi and Mizrahi organizations have already responded angrily, calling for JVP to remove all reference to Mizrahi and Sephardi history in their literature.

Drawing on the revisionism of the academics Zvi Ben-Dror Benite, Yehouda Shenhav and Ella Shohat, JVP begins by falsifying the history of Middle Eastern and North African Jews. We are not told that these Jews were settled in the region since biblical times—predating Islam by 1,000 years—lest we are led to believe that Jews are other than white “colonial settlers.” JVP begins its history lesson with the Ottomans. Jews paid a poll tax so that the Ottoman empire might protect them, and violence against them was “unusual.”

Two falsehoods in one sentence. The dhimmi system was a Mafia-style protection racket built on extortion and humiliation: Jews were granted few rights. Pre-1948 massacres against the Jews were not unusual.

If Zionism was a European movement, so was Arab nationalism. In fact, the latter was predicated on a myth: that a common language was enough to glue disparate tribes together. Arab nationalism turned out to be a dismal failure—a recipe for tyranny and internecine conflict, while Israel, despite never knowing a minute of peace, has been an outstanding success.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

...That fig leaf may do more harm than good to Airbnb’s legal defenses, because only in the West Bank does Airbnb distinguish between home owners based on religion or ethnicity. If Airbnb was delisting all homes in the West Bank, that would be one thing, but instead it is delisting only Jewish homes.

William A. Jacobson..
Legal Insurrection..
28 January '19..

In November, Airbnb announced that it would delist Jewish homes, and only Jewish homes, in Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”).

As I explained at the time, the delisting nominally referred to homes in Settlements, but in the West Bank that is the only place Jews can purchase or rent homes because of Palestinian laws and threats against any Palestinian who rents or sells land to Jews:

The area was ethnically cleansed of Jews by the Jordanians after Jordan captured the area in Israel’s War of Independence. The 1949 Armistice Line was where the fighting stopped, and left many historically Jewish areas, including the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, in Jordanian hands. Israel recaptured the area in 1967.Israeli Jews in those areas live in settlements because the regular housing market is not available. Palestinians are forbidden by the Palestinian Authority and terrorist groups, often under threat of death, from selling or renting to Jews. And given the long history of violence, including stabbings and shootings, directed towards Jews in those areas, it would be too dangerous.The West Bank is disputed territory. For a history of why the settlements are not illegal and the area is not illegally occupied, see our prior posts.The campaign against Airbnb was led by groups like the extremist U.S. Campaign for Palestinian rights, the misleadingly named “Jewish Voice for Peace,” and Code Pink. The obsessive-compulsive anti-Zionist Ariel Gold of Code Pink even disrupted Airbnb meetings.The anti-Israel Human Rights Watch, which is leading a UN effort to blacklist companies doing business in the West Bank, was about to come out with a report slamming Airbnb, according to an HRW executive.Airbnb has capitulated. It will boycott Jews living in the West Bank. While it couches its language referring to “settlements,’ that is just another way of saying Jews because Jews only can live in “settlements” in the West Bank.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

Monday, January 28, 2019

...To get a sense of the scale of this imbalance, note that the Gaza riots have claimed 209 Palestinian lives, whilst roughly 16,000 Syrians died during that time, with another 800,000 or so driven from their homes

Adam Levick..
UK Media Watch..
28 January '19..

The Guardian’s institutional hostility to Israel is in part driven by their near obsession with the plight of the Palestinians – a story almost always framed, regardless of the facts, in terms of the latter’s suffering at the hands of the former. This disproportionate focus was evident in our review of their ‘Photos of the Week‘ series, which they describe as “The best photographs in news and culture from around the world”.

Our survey of this series since March 31st – when the Hamas-led ‘Great March of Return’ began – found that 31 photos depicted scenes from the weekly Gaza border riots.

(This count doesn’t include photos related to other non-protest related Gaza violence – such as IDF responses to Hamas rocket attacks – or events in the West Bank. If we were to include such photos, the count would be significantly higher.)

In contrast, the Guardian published a mere 21 photos depicting the Syrian Civil War over the same 10 month period.

To get a sense of the scale of this imbalance, note that the Gaza riots have claimed 209 Palestinian lives, whilst roughly 16,000 Syrians died during that time, with another 800,000 or so driven from their homes (extrapolating from 2018 totals as reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights).

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

...That investigator, just days before he was assassinated, said prophetically: "With Nisman around or not, the evidence is there." Argentines now face a choice: to act on that evidence or to surrender to terrorists and murderers. To put it another way, they must decide what kind of nation Argentina is, and what kind of nation Argentina will become.Clifford D. May/Toby Dershowitz..
Israel Hayom..
28 January '19..Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/crimes-without-punishment-in-argentina/

For more than a decade, Alberto Nisman had been investigating the worst terrorist attack ever committed on Argentine soil: the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. Eighty-five people were killed and hundreds wounded.

Four years ago this week, the federal prosecutor was putting the finishing touches on a report that would accuse then-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and a dozen others of helping cover up the Islamic Republic of Iran's responsibility for the attack.

On Jan. 18, the day before he was to present that report to Argentina's Congress, Nisman was found dead in the bathroom of his locked 13th-floor apartment. A .22-caliber bullet had been fired at close-range into his head.

Kirchner initially called his death a suicide – even though his fingerprints were not found on the Bersa pistol left close to his body, and there was no gunpowder residue on his hands.

Just over a year ago, however, an investigation by 28 forensic experts and law enforcement officials conclusively determined that he did not kill himself. In fact, they were able to deduce, two people roughed him up, sedated him, and then shot him.

Who were those people? And from whom were they taking orders? Argentines attempting to answer such questions place themselves in danger.

Late last month, Federal Judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado, who also is Nisman's former wife and the mother of their two daughters, withdrew from formal involvement in the investigation. The reason: ongoing threats – the "need to guarantee the protection and safety of the family," as she phrased it in a written statement.

Nisman used wire-tapped conversations to build his case against Kirchner. Among them was one concerning an ally, former intelligence official Antonio Stiuso. Kirchner says on tape: "We have to kill him." Her defenders claim she did not intend to be taken literally. Stiuso, unconvinced, subsequently fled the country with his family.

In September 2017, former Argentine Ambassador to Syria Roberto Ahuad revealed in testimony that Foreign Minister Hector Timerman had visited Syria in January 2011 to finalize an agreement with Iran, at a meeting hosted by Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. A message sent to Ahuad asked: "When are you committing suicide?" Another warned: "Beware of an induced suicide."

And Eduardo Taiano, the head prosecutor investigating Nisman's murder, has received messages threatening to do to him and his son what was done to Nisman.

Nevertheless, Taiano is continuing to investigate, focusing most immediately on calls made over more than 150 phone lines – many of them reportedly to intelligence agents – on the day Nisman's body was found.

Long before implicating Argentine officials in a conspiracy, Nisman had found solid evidence that officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran planned and financed the AMIA bombing, and that Hezbollah, its terrorist proxy, carried it out.

Based on open-source information and the PA’s own budget, PMW broke down PA terror payments into various categories. More than $62 million was sent to terrorists while they were in jail, while almost $48 million was paid to released prisoners. Roughly $26 million was used to pay other terrorist-related salaries and additional benefits.

PA security personnel jailed on terrorism charges continue to receive higher salaries from a different budget than other prisoners, which underestimates the overall figure of payments transferred to jailed terrorists.

Payments are a function of the severity of the attack and prison sentence. The more brutal the attack or murder, the more money a Palestinian prisoner receives. Prisoners with previous arrests receive more money as well.

These figures do not include other forms of PA support to Palestinian terrorists, such as payments to the families of “martyrs,” or dead terrorists.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

Sunday, January 27, 2019

...If BDS is going to take credit for Israel's dip in FDI in 2014, then it must take responsibility for Israel's huge FDI increase in 2017. Which means that if BDS was a corporation, its CEO should resign in disgrace for how poor it meets its stated goals.

Elder of Ziyon..
25 January '19..

"BDS was a major factor behind the 46% drop in foreign direct investment in Israel in 2014, according to a UN report," the BDS webpage still says.

YNet reported, "The report contains one very glum statistic; in 2014 $6.4 billion were invested in Israel, whereas in 2013 $11.8 billion were invested - a decline of about 46%."

It turns out the UN report didn't blame BDS for the drop, but one of the Israeli economists who wrote the UN report said it might be because of a combination of BDS and the 2014 Gaza war -and admitted that her theory was only conjecture. But that guess was enough to excite the Israel-haters.

Mondoweiss was over the moon, quoting Bisan Mitri, Palestinian BDS National Committee secretariat member, who said, "Ten years after its launch, the BDS movement is being recognised by one of the authors of a UN report as starting to have major impacts on the Israeli economy. Israel’s shift to the far-right, its intentional crimes against Palestinians and the BDS movement and rapid changes in public opinion following Israel’s massacre of Palestinians in Gaza last summer mean that Israel is increasingly becoming a less attractive investment destination."

BDS was claiming this victory across the board, with no caveats. They knew that they were having a major effect on Israel's economy. They raised money based on this victory.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

I can only wish those campaigning for our votes were wise enough to realize that their campaign materials are not only seen by Israelis but by a world that judges us as harshly as it can.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
24 January '19..

Benny Gantz’s election campaign videos are being used by Electronic Intifada to tar and feather Israel. When this is your starting point:

. . . Gantz, like Netanyahu, is accurately reflecting the desires and fantasies of an Israeli public that views the willingness to shed the blood of defenseless Palestinians caged in ghettos after decades of expulsion and military occupation as the truest measure of leadership.

then there is not much they think Israel can do right other than vacate all the land like Hamas and the PLO would like to see happen. In fact, co-founder of Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah, has written a book proposing the one-state solution that solves the Israeli-“Palestinian” problem by ensuring that the Jews in Israel (and Christians and Baha’i) go down the same path as non-Muslims (or Muslims of the wrong kind) in the rest of the Arab world.

Therefore I can only imagine his glee when he set his eyes upon Gantz’s misguided campaign materials and the only positive thing I can say about the Electronic Intifada article is that they translated the videos accurately. First let us look at Abunimah’s justification for hating Israel, as stated in the quote above, and then I will talk about the videos Gantz put out.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

Friday, January 25, 2019

The default narrative on the left singles out Israel for demonization based on lies and distortions afforded to no other country, people or cause, and which has legitimized anti-Semitic tropes straight out of the Nazi or medieval Christian playbooks.

Melanie Phillips..
JNS.org..
24 January '19..

If there’s one concept in Western progressive circles that is deemed essential for a decent society, it’s “social inclusion.” The promotion of diversity is assumed to be morally unchallengeable.

That’s also the prevalent attitude among Jews in both America and Britain.

Many if not most support liberal immigration policies and equate anti-Semitism with “Islamophobia.” The belief is that those who are against immigration and diversity will be against the Jews too.

In fact, the opposite is the case.

The default narrative on the left is venomous hostility to Israel. This is the “new anti-Semitism,” singling out Israel for demonization based on lies and distortions afforded to no other country, people or cause, and which has legitimized anti-Semitic tropes straight out of the Nazi or medieval Christian playbooks.

In Britain, this has all but consumed the Labour Party under its far-left leader, Jeremy Corbyn. In the United States, it is making steady and unchecked headway in the Democratic Party.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

The Guardian’s insistence on denying, downplaying and otherwise obfuscating this extremist group’s malevolent intent, whilst simultaneously demonising the Jewish state they seek to destroy, is more than merely a commentary on the media group’s fanatical hostility towards Israel. It is, to be sure, a reflection of their institutional failure to understand and take seriously modern antisemitism – a Corbyn-style atavistic reflex which – whilst condemning racism in every form – when confronted with ‘the Jewish problem’ sees Jews as the problem.

Adam Levick..
UK Media Watch..
23 January '19..

We’ve been monitoring the Guardian and commenting on the media group’s institutional hostility to Israel for nearly 10 years, and nothing much shocks us at this point. Yet, an official editorial published yesterday reaches a new low in malice and plain out dishonesty. The headline alone, using language you’d normally use when describing totalitarian regimes, is repulsive – representative of the kind of ugly, baseless anti-Zionist smear you’d expect to see at Electronic Intifada and other extremist outlets.

The op-ed begins:

In the last nine months of 2018, according to the United Nations, Palestinians – many of them children – were killed at the rate of around one a day while taking part in protests along Israel’s perimeter fence with Gaza about their right to return to ancestral homes. They included medics and journalists. Most of the dead were unarmed and posed no danger to anyone, with little more than rocks in their hands and slogans on their lips. Yet Israel continued with an immoral and unlawful policy that sees soldiers of its military, which is under democratic civilian control, shoot, gas, shell and kill protesters, including those who pose no credible threat.

What the Guardian suggests are peaceful ‘protests’ by ‘slogan’ shouting marchers are actually organised violent riots which include the use of Molotov cocktails, the planting of IEDs and countless attempts to cut through the security fence and infiltrate the border.

To claim that thousands of rioters attempting to breach the border and attack civilians pose “no danger” turns reality on its head – especially given the fact that most of the rioters killed have been identified as operatives of terror groups.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

Thursday, January 24, 2019

Rock-throwing has always been depicted as a harmless act of symbolism used by the powerless, but after an alleged settler attack, it’s time to agree that it’s an act of terror.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
23 January '19..

As far as the mainstream media is usually concerned, when rocks are thrown in the Middle East, it’s nothing to get too worked up about. When Palestinian mobs throw rocks at Israeli soldiers at the Gaza border fence as part of their effort to cross into the Jewish state and commit mayhem, such actions are generally depicted as a nonlethal form of protest.

Ever since the Palestinians launched an intifada—a “national uprising”—in December of 1987, rock-throwing has been treated as a popular form of protest against Israel. Indeed, the act of throwing rocks at Jews has long since become an iconic symbolic of the “resistance” to Israel, glorified in Palestinian culture, poems and songs. Throwing rocks at soldiers and settlers or their cars and buses has become something like a national sport, as well as a rite of passage for Arab youth.

...a nonlethal form of protest? (TY Daniel Sass - Video 2012)

Incidents of stone-throwing at Jewish targets are a daily occurrence, and so numerous that Israel barely bothers to keep statistics on them. But we do know that at least 14 Israelis have been killed as a result of car crashes caused by rock-throwing or direct blows. When Palestinians are arrested in connection with such crimes, they are either depicted sympathetically as legitimate combatants using the only weapons available to them or as children who are unjustly harassed or even tortured by the Israeli army and police for what is, at worst, nothing more than so-called teenage mischief-making.

But after more than 30 years of such stories in the media, the international press has finally decided to treat this “harmless” activity in the West Bank as a crime.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

...the pattern of behavior of If Not Now reflects a far more serious problem in American public discourse. While the organization's activists are purportedly committed to an open and tolerant society in which people of different opinions can voice their positions, in practice, they loudly impose their views on others. They rob those who have an opposing view or who have yet to consolidate their views of the right to learn and express themselves. In doing so, they reveal the limits of their tolerance: They are in favor of a pluralistic and open society for all but those who disagree with them.

A new group of young American Jews has come into our lives, one that goes by the name of If Not Now. Members of the organization made headlines when they were supposedly thrown off a Taglit-Birthright trip to Israel for asking questions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But these were not young people whose natural curiosity was spontaneously piqued on a trip to Israel, rather activists who belong to a radical organization sent specifically on Birthright trips to disrupt them. These are not even young people who support the two-state solution, but political activists who refuse, both as individuals and on an organizational level, to declare their support for Israel's right to exist with or without Judea and Samaria.

The problem, of course, is not the raising of questions, a legitimate activity in any discussion that takes place inside a democratic and diverse society, but the callous exploitation at the expense of program participants of the framework of a particular activity to promote their ideas.

There are dozens of left-wing, Israeli and American, Jewish and non-Jewish organizations that offer tours of Israel that reflect If Not Now's worldview. I am confident that none of the activists who snuck onto the Birthright tour would have had a problem joining any of them. These activists knowingly showed up for a trip that does not reflect their positions and does not focus on the issues to which they wanted to draw attention. They not only exploited the generosity of the donors who fund Birthright but prevented other young people, who were interested in connecting to their Jewish identity and learning about the State of Israel, from having the opportunity to do so as they saw fit.

...As far as The Guardian is concerned, Israel is the aggressor, carrying out airstrikes for the personal benefit of the prime minister — against Iranians who just happened to be in the neighborhood on unrelated business.

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
22 January '19..

The Guardian‘s coverage of Israeli airstrikes against Iranian military targets in Syria includes some disturbing text:

Although the threat of direct confrontation between Israel and Iran has long simmered in Syria – where the Iranian military built a presence early in the civil war to help Bashar al-Assad – the most recent flare-up has come at a potentially dangerous moment.On the Israeli side the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long directed bellicose rhetoric towards Iran, is facing the threat of indictment – perhaps as early as February – over corruption allegations, as well as elections in April.

Is correspondent Peter Beaumont suggesting that that Netanyahu deliberately contributed to this “potentially dangerous moment”? Is Beaumont implying that the prime minister orchestrated an escalation to divert attention from his legal woes?

That’s not journalism.

That’s a conspiracy theory.

Netanyahu’s ‘bellicose rhetoric’

For Beaumont, it is Netanyahu “who has long directed bellicose rhetoric towards Iran,” painting Israel as the aggressor. According to Beaumont, Iranian forces are in Syria simply “to help Bashar al-Assad.”

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

...Abbas repeats libel that Israel poisoned Arafat: "They can kill me in my home with bullets or with a missile at any given moment. They can also kill me with poison, as they poisoned the late President Yasser Arafat... but I will not surrender"

Mahmoud Al-Habbash: "There is suspicious and dangerous coordination between the statements of the occupation state's leaders and the statements of the Hamas Movement's leaders on all that is connected to an attack on [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas."[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 14, 2019]

Al-Habbash claimed Israel and Hamas share a desire to "assassinate" Abbas. He alleged that Israeli cabinet members have talked about "ways of getting rid of" Abbas, and said this was done in parallel with Hamas urging foreign parliaments to revoke Abbas' legitimacy as president:

"[Al-Habbash] emphasized that this coordination of statements [between Israel and Hamas] and the attack on the Palestinian leadership headed by the president is not coincidental, because both Israel and Hamas incite against the president morning and night, challenge his legitimacy, and want to assassinate him."

The "attacks" against Abbas refer to remarks by Israeli Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan who suggested barring Abbas from returning to the Palestinian territories the next time he travels abroad, and to a campaign by an Israeli private right-wing organization that on posters with Abbas' face seen through a rifle sight has called on the Israeli government to "eliminate those who fund murder!"

Fatah's Revolutionary Council Secretary Majed Al-Fatiani claimed this campaign is coming from the Israeli government:

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Thus, in one respect, Alexander is right. There has been a “Silence on Palestine.” But far from being silent on Israel’s bad behavior, real or imagined, the Times has obsessively focused on it. Michelle Alexander’s 2,000-word plus op-ed is a continuation of the paper’s compulsive placement of Israel under a microscope. Sullivan’s spot on advice is just as much, if not more, relevant today: It’s time to break the silence on Palestinian bad behavior.

Tamar Sternthal..
JNS.org..
22 January '19..

Reflecting a total lack of self-awareness, the trite headline to Michelle Alexander’s 2,281-word op-ed, online on Sunday and in print on Jan. 19, in The New York Times says it all: “Time to Break the Silence on Palestine.” The notion that the Palestinian issue is ignored, that a “silence” currently surrounds it or has surrounded it in years past, and that pro-Israel advocates muzzle opposing views is a common canard of anti-Israel activists.

For example, veteran Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy, who regularly accuses Israel of war crimes and apartheid in the pages of his own newspaper and in international forums, recently charged that “it’s getting more and more difficult, more often than not, impossible” to publish articles critical of Israel in the mainstream press. But the facts say otherwise. At the Times, for instance, in the six months prior to Levy’s column, the paper published 10 opinion pieces showing explicit support of Israel in general or of a specific Israeli policy, presenting Israel in a positive light or defending it from criticism. In the same time period, the media outlet published 15 Times opinion pieces criticizing or condemning Israeli policies.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

Yes, Maasarwe should be humanized and if the family wish to identify as Palestinian above all else, that is their right. But Khalik and The Guardian should not be politicizing the death of young woman in pursuit of their own anti-Israel agendas. That Israel has treated Aiia Maasarwe as an Israeli is exactly what scares the likes of Khalik because it proves the opposite of their anti-Israel narrative.

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
21 January '19..

The appalling rape and murder of Israeli Arab student Aiia Maasarwe in Melbourne last week has made news in both Australian and Israeli media.

Maasarwe was an Israeli citizen, lived in the town of Baqa al-Gharbiya in northern Israel and was in Australia on an Israeli passport.

It’s no secret that Israel’s Arab citizens self-identify in different ways. Some have no problem with their Israeli identities. Others see themselves as Palestinian above all else despite their citizenship. That’s their prerogative and, irrespective of how they relate to the Israeli state, Israel will still treat them as citizens deserving of the same legal rights afforded to all Israelis.

But this is anathema to Israel haters whose narrative falsely portrays Israel as an apartheid state. Just imagine if Israel had washed its hands of any responsibility for this poor young woman simply because she was an Arab. The world would, quite rightly, be hauling Israel over the coals for an act of blatant discrimination. But Israel’s embassy in Australia has taken responsibility for repatriating Maasarwe’s body and the embassy’s spokesperson, herself a member of Israel’s Druze minority, issued this press release:

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

...In the thirty-one years since it was founded, Hamas has received 2265 mentions, which is more than both ‘Bangor’ and ‘Port Talbot’ in Wales received in seventy years. Are the people of Bangor and Port Talbot who vote for parliamentary representation, happy about the fact that the UK Parliament is focused more on Hamas than their own well-being?

David Collier..
Beyond the Great Divide..
21 January '19..

Delving into Hansard, the record of Parliamentary debates, turned up astonishing results on Israel, the Levant, Jews and antisemitism. It highlights a total obsession with Israel in Parliament and suggests antisemitism is a growing problem, of which Corbyn is merely a symptom. It has something to say on ‘Palestine’ and Israeli settlements too. Take a look:

Hansard

Hansard provides official transcripts of Parliamentary Debates in Britain. The digital archive is online and searchable. Like many things associated with the British Parliament, Hansard’s own history is built upon the bedrock of people fighting for freedom. Thomas Curson Hansard was one of the original pressmen who fought for the right to publish reports of Parliamentary proceedings.

Hansard opens a window into the beating heart of British democracy. Through use of the archives from the 1800s, these discussions can help recreate the world vision, of what was at the time, the most powerful nation on the Planet.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

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About Me

I visited Hevron in November 2000 after the outbreak of the Rosh Hashanah War to see what could be done to assist in the face of the growing daily attacks on the community. After returning to work for the community in the summer of 2001, a bond and a love was forged that grows to this day. My wife Melody and I merited to be married at Ma'arat HaMachpela and now host visitors from throughout the world every Shabbat as well as during the week. Our goal, "Time to come Home!"